Sunday, September 8, 2013

Home of the Blues

The
Enchanter Heir:

Soundtrack
of the Blues

“…
the twisty narrative works, propelled by the deft characterizations of
tortured, frustrated, desperate Jonah and fierce, feral, determined Emma and
held together by the ubiquitous soundtrack of the blues, both literally and
metaphorically.”

– Kirkus
Reviews, The Enchanter Heir

When
I was in my teens, I was the lead singer and the least-skilled guitarist in a
couple of bands. We sang the songs of the mid-century folk revival; songs that
told stories, including traditional ballads, and rock and roll that could be
adaptable to our acoustic stylings. I even tried my hand at song-writing, but
always felt more comfortable as a lyricist than a composer. Though I wouldn’t
call myself a musician, music has always been important to me.

Maybe
because I’m a storyteller, I’m especially smitten by the people’s music—the
folk and blues and country and gospel music that entwines with people’s lives,
telling their stories when no one else will. It’s the music that was carried
from town to town by the traveling minstrels of the old world. It’s a music
that has stirred passions and sent men to war and soothed the widows and
orphans left behind. It rises from cotton fields and country churches and after-hours
clubs in the grittier parts of Chicago, Cleveland, Memphis, and Detroit.

The
blues tells the sad stories of the working class—of mistakes made, of jobs
lost, brushes with the law, and the good dying young. The stories are stuffed full
of murders, betrayals, devil’s bargains, and lovers who just won’t be true.

This
music is always on the move--changing and evolving as it gets passed from hand
to hand. It is imperfect and unproduced—vetted only by the test of time. It
persists only because it speaks the kind of truth that grabs the heart and
won’t let go.

The
power of music is an important theme in The Enchanter Heir. Jonah Kinlock is a
survivor, left so damaged by a magical accident that the only way he can connect with others
is through music—through his guitar and his intoxicating voice.

Emma
Greenwood is a musical prodigy; an unschooled wild-child raised in Memphis by a
grandfather who builds guitars and channels the blues. It is music that brings Emma
and Jonahtogether—and a shared history
that threatens to tear them apart.

Many
of the chapter titles are the names of blues songs. Maybe some are already
familiar to you. If you want to hear more, you’ll find my Enchanter Heir
playlist here on Spotify.